Story+1985-08-19+East+Rutherford,+NJ

“How you doing out there, New Jersey? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Johnny 99”**

“We traveled down through Texas…through down around Houston on the first part of our American tour…there’s a lot of folks down there that come down from up north…from Detroit…looking for work in the oil fields or out on the oil rigs…they came down with their wives and their kids…and when the price of oil dropped, they started shutting them down…they’d get down there looking for a boom town to find out that there wasn’t any work, they’d end up sleeping in tents out on the side of the highway or sleeping in their cars at night…with no place to go, nothing else to do but move on… this is called “Seeds”…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Seeds”**

“Yeah, this is, uh…when I was, uh…when I was growing up my dad used to play this trick on me all the time…he used to lock up the front door at night so I used to have to come in ‘round the side so he’d always know what time I was coming home…and, uh, I can remember he’d sit in the kitchen in the dark and I’d stand out on the driveway and at the time I used to have real long hair down to my shoulders (crowd cheers)(chuckles) and he used to hate it, couldn’t stand it…so I’d stand out there in the driveway and I’d pull my collar real high and I’d try to slick it back so it’d look as short as it could…then I’d go up on the porch, I’d go through the kitchen, he wouldn’t say nothing, I’d get through the living room, in the living room my mom’d be watching TV with those pink curlers in her hair (chuckles) pink slippers with the flowers on the toes (chuckles) she’ll kill me (chuckles) but, uh, she’d be asleep and just as I got my foot on the bottom step to go upstairs I’d hear from the kitchen: “Bruuuce” (crowd “Bruuces”) telling me to come back and sit down with him so I’d go back and we’d sit there, we’d sit there for about ten or fifteen minutes before either of us would say anything and then finally he’d say something like “What do you think you’re doing with yourself?”…the worst part was I could never explain it to him (chuckles) but, uh…I don’t know…I’m gonna do this for him, he’s out there tonight (?)…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “The River”**

“Alright, here’s for all you arguing lovers out there…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “I’m Goin’ Down”**

“[After the sing-along] Sounds good! (crowd cheers) Pavarotti, look out out there! (crowd cheers) the man’s got nothing on you…this is a song about…about getting old…yeah…I mean it’s about Father Time, it’s about time’s winged chariot, it comes along and gets everybody…don’t matter who you are, man, you’re rich or you’re poor, you’re gonna get old sometime…now I’m 35 (crowd cheers) that’s old, man!...now the Big Man’s, he’s forty…forty, uh, forty, forty – but he still looks good (crowd cheers) oh yeah…oh, yes he does…I’m gonna do this for anybody over thirty out there tonight …if you’re married, if you got your kids with you…’cause in the end …it all ain’t nothing but…but…but…glory days (crowd cheers) are you ready, Band?…are you ready, people? (crowd cheers)(?)…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Glory Days”**

“No matter how old you get…you gotta keep searching for that Promised Land…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “The Promised Land”**

“Thanks, thank you…this is, uh, here’s a song…I guess…I wrote about four years ago now, three or four years ago…I was living away from home and I was thinking back on my hometown, what was going on there…what had happened to…to the people that I’d known (?)…’cause when I was a kid – and I guess everybody feels that way, you kind of end up with a love-hate relationship with the place that you’re born, I remember when I was about sixteen or seventeen, I couldn’t wait to, uh, couldn’t wait to get old enough to get out of town…’cause, uh, I guess in the late Sixties it was pretty small-minded where I grew up…but those were the times…but, uh, anyway I did get old enough and I got out on my own and I got to traveling a lot and for a long time I never missed it or ever really went back…but as I got older, I’d come home and I’d get in my car and I started driving down the old streets I grew up on…driving past the old houses I lived in, wondering, wondering who lived there now…driving past and seeing lights in the window, I’d wonder who’s in there now, who’s in my room…but, uh, I guess when I was young one of the things I was afraid of was I was afraid of belonging to something ‘cause if you admit that you belong to something, that you means you got some responsibility to that thing…if you say, like, you’re a New Jerseyan, that means you got some responsibility to New Jersey (crowd cheers)(?) so I guess tonight there’s some representatives from a couple of organizations that are trying to live up to their responsibility to their community, there’s some people from the Community Foodbank of New Jersey and there’s some folks from the Food and Hunger Hotline of New York City…now, what happens is every year in the United States twenty percent of all the food that gets produced just gets wasted and thrown away, meanwhile in every city and every state people are going to bed hungry at night, there’s old folks whose social security checks don’t get them through the month, there’s kids who aren’t getting the right kinds of food, there’s people that have been hit hard by unemployment and the government, with the cutback in the government social spendings, all these people are not getting caught in any safety net, they’re falling right straight through to the bottom…and, uh… well, they need some assistance and I guess I always thought when I was a kid, I remember sitting in a classroom and looking up at the flag, I guess the thing that it always meant to me was it meant fairness for all the citizens (crowd cheers) but right now, right now that’s not the situation we have here so these are organizations that are trying to pick up some of that slack, they’re making real every day in people’s lives some of the ideas that I’m singing about here tonight and without them out there working every day in the community all I’m doing up here tonight is a bunch of words…so if you can, their numbers will be up in the lobby, during the intermission you can check them out, you can see what they’re about…you can see…if you can find a way of doing something about it…because right now in a country that’s as rich as ours, there’s, there’s no reason to have the kind of poverty that we have here, it’s really a shame on all of us and it’s a shame on our national pride (crowd cheers) so anyway, these are folks that out there living in the shadow of a dream…see if you can do something about it ‘cause in the end this is your hometown (crowd cheers)…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “My Hometown”**

“Thanks…we’re gonna take a short break…when you get out there in the lobby, see if you can check out those numbers for the Community Foodbank of New Jersey and the New York Hunger Hotline, they’re out there trying to make New York City and New Jersey a better place for all of its citizens so they can use your help – and don’t go away because we’re gonna be back to shake the entire state to the sea! (crowd cheers) see you in a little while, ok? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, after “Thunder Road”**

“Sometimes I feel…I get so downhearted…and I feel like I just can’t stand myself…that’s when I wanna reach out…to somebody… somewhere…’cause I need a little help…and I just wanna say “Hey there, Baby”…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, middle of “Dancing in the Dark”**

“Shout out if you’re hungry inside! (crowd cheers)…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, after “Hungry Heart”**

“I said anybody seen a man with my Cadillac out there? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Cadillac Ranch”**

“I always remember…when I was growing up, my folks having to work so hard all the time…I remember my dad getting up in the morning six o’clock and go out in the yard…laying on his back on the cold ground trying to get the car started…I remember Mom always going down to the finance man to borrow money for Christmas, getting it paid back just in time to borrow money for Easter, getting it paid back in time to borrow money for us to go to school…it never seemed like it bothered her…but it seemed like it bothered my dad…I remember laying up in bed at night feeling like …if something didn’t change…if something didn’t happen…that someday I was just gonna…I felt like I was just gonna…I felt like someday I’d just…like I’d just…I’d just…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “I’m on Fire”**

“Sin! Are you familiar with it? (crowd cheers) ‘cause this is a song about the conflict...it’s about temptation…the conflict between worldly things and spiritual health...the conflict between desires of the flesh – and I’m talking about sexual desire (crowd cheers) and spiritual ecstasy...now, where did this conflict begin?...well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden…now tonight to help me out I’ve brought one of our, one of our state’s most well-known biblical scholars, handsome Jim McDuffy…Him, bring the, bring the charts out, please…thanks…now understand the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia – that’s what this is, somewhere in there...but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was – Jim (crowd cheers) ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike (crowd cheers) and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call this the Garden State (crowd cheers) that’s right… now understand in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living, you didn’t have TV, you couldn’t go home, put your little Pop-Tarts in the toaster, put the little pizza in the oven, the frozen pizza, and then jump in bed and watch David Letterman…you couldn’t do that...you couldn’t out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one...or go down to the Shore and get one of them, one of them hot dogs with all the relish and the mustard and everything (crowd cheers) no Sir!...in the Garden of Eden there was no sin...there was no sex (crowd boos) man lived in a state of innocence...well, now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in (crowd cheers) but, oh, man, let me tell you, in the Garden of Eden, man, there were many wondrous things: there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, ooh, that led to a lot of trouble…there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve, and she looked so fine...and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman...and when she kissed Adam, it was the first time that a woman had ever kissed a man…and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch…and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman…and then she touched him and it was the first time that a woman had ever touched a man …and then he crawled up real close to her and he said “I love you, Evie, I love you so”…and then they walked out into the green fields...and they lay down…and when Adam...well, let’s just say it was the first time (crowd cheers) but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, oh yeah, Satan came slithering up on his belly and he turned their sweet love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below...but that’s alright because right here tonight on this back lot I’ve got their getaway car and for ninety-nine ninety-five and no money down, don’t worry if you’ve got bad credit, it’s good here, we’ll finance, we’ll take a chance on you, if you’ve got the nerve to ride...I’ve got the keys to the first....pink....Cadillac (crowd cheers)...”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Pink Cadillac”**

“Thank you, thanks (crowd cheers) I’d like to just take a second and thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, thank you very much (crowd cheers) let you know that we appreciate it and, uh…I’d like to, uh…do this song for you, I guess this is about… the greatest song that’s ever been written about America…it’s by Woody Guthrie…I guess what’s so great about it is, is it gets right to the promise of what our country was supposed to be about…and as we sit here tonight, that’s a promise that’s eroding for many of our fellow countrymen…I don’t know if you talked to the steelworkers from the Monongahela Valley or Gary, Indiana or East Los Angeles if they’d think that this song was true any more, or if you talked to the farmers in the Midwest who are losing their farms …I don’t know if it’s true any more but I know that it ought to be …and I think that in some way…(?) some way it’s up to each of us to make sure that…that it is true…and, uh, I’d like to do this for you tonight…just saying that we all gotta be vigilant because with countries, just like with people, it’s easy to let the best of yourself slip away…I’d like to do this for you wishing you all the longest life with the best of everything (crowd cheers)…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “This Land Is Your Land”**

“Thanks, remember in the end nobody wins ‘less everybody wins…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Born to Run”**

“(?) on the piano, Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) on the vocals, Miss Patti Scialfa (crowd cheers) on the drums, the Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici (crowd cheers) on the bass, Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) on the guitar, Mr. Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) and the greatest man in the history of western civilization (crowd cheers) on the saxophone, Big Man, Clarence Clemons (crowd cheers) I’m a roadrunner, Big Man, I’m a roadrunner…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Ramrod”**

“I’m feeling good now (crowd cheers) this is my favorite part of the night…I get to see who’s out there…are you twisting? (crowd cheers) looking good down there, I’m telling you (chuckles) alright, woo!...how you doing, Big Man? (Clarence: “Big Man grooving”) alright!...how’s the band doing? (Max drums) alright – how’s you folks over there in the stands doing? (crowd cheers) alright…now how about you folks over here? (crowd cheers) yeah…now what about you guys way back on the hill there? (crowd cheers) are you alright way back there? (crowd cheers) are you doing alright? good …now what about the folks in the bleacher seats back here? (very loud cheers) the crazy ones always sit in the back (crowd cheers) they don’t get to sit in the front (crowd cheers) now how’s everybody down on the dance floor? (crowd cheers) good…because before I go, there’s one thing I gotta know…I mean before I leave, there’s one question that I need an answer to…and what I have to know is…I mean what I need to know is…I mean what I have to know is…I mean what I came home to New Jersey to find out is (crowd cheers) I mean what I need to know is (crowd cheers) I mean what I’ve got to know is (crowd cheers) I mean what I got to know in my heart is (crowd cheers) is…do you love me?...”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, middle of “Twist and Shout”**

“Alright, can’t go home yet (chuckles) I’m feeling alright…this is, uh …this is…for all the Jersey girls (crowd cheers) New Jersey girls (crowd cheers)…”
 * 19.08.85 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Jersey Girl”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//